Needcompany | Lee Miller in Hitlers Bathtub

Lee Miller in Hitlers Bathtub

Lee Miller in Hitlers Bathtub - A tragic cantata

Text, direction and scenography Jan Lauwers
Composition Maarten Seghers
Performed by Kate Lindsey (mezzo-soprano) | Romy Louise Lauwers | a five-piece music ensemble

Dramaturgy Elke Janssens
Assistant to the director Emily Hehl
Production Manager Rune Floryn

Production Needcompany

Coproduction Wiener Staatsoper

Created with the support of the Tax Shelter of the Belgian Federal Government and the Flemish Authorities

Lee Miller in Hitlers Bathtub' is neither a historical nor biographical portrait of artist Lee Miller and should be seen as faction; combining actual historical events with fictional elements. The interpretation of the Lee Miller character is based on artistic choices and Jan Lauwers; vision and may differ from historical documentation or biographies. Some dialogue, situations and interactions are invented.

A story for two women and a few unimportant men

Jan Lauwers’ oeuvre as a writer and theatre maker is characterised by strong female
roles. One woman who has fascinated him for a long time is the American artist Lee
Miller. (War-) photographer, journalist, top model, cover girl and alcoholic. Abused,
vilified, adored and discarded. And then there is this one photo: 'Lee in Hitler’s bathtub'
by David E. Scherman in 1945. The text begins at the moment when Lee Miller stands in
front of Hitler’s bathtub in her stinking clothes, which still reek of the corpse smells from
Dachau.

Jan Lauwers: 'The libretto does not tell the story of Lee Miller from birth to death. Jan Lauwers is fascinated by the moral lack of clarity of Lee as a woman in a patriarchal society, in
which power games are ruthlessly played. What does it mean for Lee that she chose to
take a bath in the monster’s bathtub? What does it mean moreover to let her photo be
taken there? What does it mean for her photography and the truth that she rearranged
corpses in Dachau for the sake of the lighting?’

The libretto 'Lee Miller in Hitlers Bathtub' is a portrait of a woman who at the end of her life said that she felt like a cow who had been milked dry. A woman in the shadow of many men. Famous men. Notorious men. Jan Lauwers wanted to make a portrait that was no longer that of Lee but of so many women in the history of art who have been gagged.